Two of a Kind
by Akatsuki210
Summary: Oneshot. Even the leader of a rogue shinobi organization loses hope sometimes. And even among S ranked criminals, the presence of one's partner can go a long way toward restoring that hope. PeinxBlue. MANGA SPOILERS.


**Disclaimer:** To my eternal dismay, I don't own _Naruto_ or any of its characters.

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**Two** **of a Kind**

As soon as she arrived and walked into the base, she knew where she would find him. Whenever he needed to think, or plan, or contemplate some new obstacle that had arisen, he would go out to the "balcony" and sit there, staring out over the city. The building they resided in had a statue of sorts built into its front. A face glared down at the landscape, mouth open and tongue lolling out, a pipe held in one hand. The pipe even seemed to smoke, because it housed the vent from which steam from the building's heating system was released. The statue's open mouth and extended tongue formed something like a balcony that could be reached from their living quarters within.

She stripped off her cloak as soon as she entered; it was torn and stained with blood. She glanced in a mirror as she walked by, and grimaced. Her hair was a mess, and her precious white flower was shredded. Petals fell to the floor as she walked, leaving a trail behind her. _Now I'll have to search the entire damn mountain range for another one._ The white flower she wore in her hair was an extremely rare species, and its nectar could be distilled into a poison with which she coated all her weapons: it prevented the wounds inflicted by those weapons from closing. Sighing, she removed the dilapidated flower from her hair and tossed it into a wastebasket.

Standing at the door that led out onto the balcony, she saw him sitting there, staring at the sky. His back was to her, but she could see that his shoulders were hunched, his posture suggesting that he was disturbed or unhappy. Frowning, she pushed open the door and stepped out. Her footsteps were silent—she _was_ a shinobi, after all—but a slight movement of his shoulders indicated that he had noticed her presence.

"I came as quickly as I could when I got your message. What's wrong?"

There was silence for a moment. Then, "Deidara's dead," he said simply.

"_What?_" She hurried forward, her normal composure falling away. "Are you sure? Who did it? And how?"

He turned, revealing hypnotic eyes and a multitude of piercings. "I'm quite certain. Tobi was there, he witnessed Deidara's death himself. As for who and how…it was Uchiha Sasuke, and the Sharingan seems to have had something to do with it."

Her cerulean brows drew together and her lips compressed to a thin line. "Itachi's brother? Does he know?"

He nodded.

"And what will he do? If he has to choose between going after his brother and completing our mission…"

"Itachi is a sensible man. If he encounters Sasuke, he will certainly fight him, but he will not forget our goals." A pause. "If they are even achievable anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"We've lost Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu, and Deidara. Literally half our organization has been defeated. It's falling apart, Tsurara. Everything we've worked for is falling apart."

She shook her head. "Lost members can be replaced." She gestured at the bustling city below them, at the many people rushing to and fro. "There are always more subordinates waiting in the wings. And we have seven of the nine bijuu. All that's left are the eight- and nine-tails. Once we have them, who the hell cares if we've lost half our members? We'll be unstoppable."

"And will any new members we might obtain be as powerful as the ones we had before? Will they be as dedicated to our goals? The partnerships are designed such that the members who are paired together compliment each other. The strengths of one make up for the weaknesses of the other. And all nine together bring unique powers to the organization. The Akatsuki isn't just something you can throw together haphazardly, replacing a lost member with any random ninja who happens to be in the neighborhood."

He stood up, and she saw that his fists were clenched by his sides. "We're _losing_, Tsurara."

"_No_," she said fiercely. "I refuse to believe that. I refuse to accept it. I won't _allow_ you to lose." She opened her mouth to say something more, and then closed it, as if realizing exactly what she'd just said. Not "I won't allow _us_ to lose," but, "I won't allow _you _to lose." All the risks she'd taken, all the battles she'd fought, everything she had done…it hadn't been for the organization, but for _him_.

"Careful, Tsurara," he whispered with a slight smirk. "We're Akatsuki, after all—we're not supposed to care about anyone other than ourselves, or put someone else's before our own."

As they talked, they had moved closer and closer to each other. Now, he realized, they had somehow ended up bare inches apart. Although she had discarded her flower, its scent lingered in the air around her, tickling his nose. Sunlight glinted off the stud in her lower lip, and he could hear her soft breathing.

"As you so kindly reminded me, we're Akatsuki. Since when have we ever given a damn about what we're _supposed_ to do?" She raised one hand to the back of his head as she said this, and he wasn't entirely surprised to feel her pull him forward into a kiss.

He had been in quite a pessimistic mood before she arrived, but now…now he felt something like hope.

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**A/N:** I am officially hooked on the PeinxBlue pairing. Blue's name in this fic is based on a spoiler (that later turned out to be fake) for Chapter 365 which said that Blue's name would be Tsurara. It's apparently the name of some kind of flower, and even though the spoiler was fake, I liked that as her name, so I decided to use it in this story.

Please review!


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